Problematic Aspects of Criminal Responsibility for Declaring False Information

Abstract

Abstract. On October 14, 2014, criminal liability was established for the submission by the subject of the declaration of knowingly inaccurate information in the declaration of a person authorized to perform the functions of the state or local self-government, provided for by the Law of Ukraine "On Prevention of Corruption", or the deliberate failure of the subject of the declaration to submit the specified declaration, (Article 366-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). However, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine came to the conclusion that the use of legal constructions, which do not have a clear list of laws, makes it impossible to unambiguously define the scope of the subjects of the crime, and the reference norms make it impossible to establish the scope of their addressees. On the basis of the aforementioned decision of December 4, 2020, in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Establishing Liability for Declaring Unreliable Information and Failure to Submit by the Declaring Subject the Declaration of a Person Authorized to Perform the Functions of the State or Local Self-Government" Art. 366-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine was excluded and supplemented by Art. 366-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The purpose of the article is to analyze problematic aspects of criminal liability for declaring false information. During the study of problematic aspects of criminal responsibility for declaring false information, such methods of scientific knowledge as deduction, dialectical, dogmatic (logical-legal), induction, modeling, comparative-legal, systemic and others were used. Achieving the final goal of the research subject with qualitatively new scientific results was facilitated by the application of appropriate methods of cognition based on the concept of defining three main levels of methodology and the basic provisions of the general theory of law interpreted in relation to criminal legislation. It was established that the current anti-corruption legislation of Ukraine has a number of shortcomings that can be detected only during law enforcement. In order to improve the implementation of criminal legislation in terms of responsibility for declaring false information, the necessity of paragraphs "e" clause 1 of Art. 3 of the Law of Ukraine "On Prevention of Corruption" to be excluded, and para. "d" should be written as follows: "e) members of the rank-and-file and senior staff of the state criminal enforcement service, senior staff of the civil protection service, as well as officials and employees of the prosecutor's office, the Security Service of Ukraine, the State Bureau of Investigation, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine, the diplomatic service , state forest protection, state protection of the nature reserve fund, the central executive body that implements the state tax policy, and the central executive body that implements the state customs policy". The imperfect design of individual criminal law norms causes not only theoretical professional discussions, but also affects law enforcement activities. Deficiencies in the Law of Ukraine on Prevention of Corruption" and the Criminal Code of Ukraine were revealed. In order to eliminate the problematic aspects of criminal liability for declaring false information, it is necessary to make a number of changes to the national legislation. Based on the analysis carried out, it is argued that the Law of Ukraine "On Prevention of Corruption" should specifically define which information is subject to mandatory declaration and which is not, while specifying that a person is not responsible for non-declaration of such information. Similar provisions should be noted in Art. 172-6 of the Code of Ukraine on administrative offenses and Art. 366-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine

Keywords: criminal liability; opposition; corruption; declaration; official; false information